Late 2008 MacBook Pro shuts down while closing lid

…or it did while I could still get it to boot up—which is no longer the case.
It started a couple of days ago with me putting it to sleep by closing the lid. Or it should have gone to sleep, but instead it came to a screetching halt before the lid was all the way down, with about an inch or two to go. And by screetching halt I mean screetching halt… imagine if you had the battery out and it was only runnning off the cable and you pulled the cable out. That's the kind of shut down I'm talking about here.
After this it booted up fine and worked flawlessly for the remainder of the afternoon. Later that evening after bringing it home from work I continued to use it without incident until the battery low warning popped up. I shut it and the same thing happened. Only this time, once it was charged it didn't boot. I tried several things:
- Starting up with only the power cable / battery
- Unplugging the power cable and removing the battery, then putting it back in and connecting the cable
- Switching the RAM chips around
- Resetting the SMC by following Apple's instructions (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964)
Nothing worked. I disconected it from power and left it with the battery out overnight. The next morning I opened it and tried starting up with the battery, then the cable, then both. Nothing. I then slowly moved the screen back and forth while repeatedly pressing the power button until at one point I heard the familiar sounds of startup before they were snuffed out by another abrupt halt. I then moved the screen very slowly in the opposite direction while continuing to repeatedly press the power button and finally got my Mac to boot up! Relief. I was able to clone the drive using SuperDuper!. I continued using my computer for another day and a half, without changing the angle of the screen, until I had to bring it to work.
Sadly, I was unable to repeat my "trick" and my MacBook Pro remains dead. This looks like a short circuit problem to me, but I'm wondering if anyone has any input or ideas I could try. Since I have no warranty on it anymore I was wondering if there would be something I could take a look at inside. An Apple tech did once say there was a screw inside causing a short but he "fixed" it. This was an unrelated event, and it was a couple of years ago.
A new computer is out of the question for me right now. What are my options? Would Apple charge me for a diagnosis?
Thank you,
Bern

You're right, but it's only a partial diagnosis. I don't know what's actually causing the short. My question about Apple charging for a diagnosis was more related to that. Knowing if the logic board would have to be replaced or just a cable… big difference in cost I would imagine.
I'm in Switzerland but I'll give them a call. Thanks.

Similar Messages

Late 2008 Macbook Pro shutting down at 94% while running on the battery

So I called Apple about this issue last week, since I tried calibrating my battery to improve it's health. And when my battery life got down to 94% or lower... my laptop just shut down. For no reason. When I called Apple, the guy I talked to before said it sounded like my battery was defective. He hooked me up to a tech guy, and when I told him what was up, he said that all the numbers on my battery sounded normal, and that he thinks that my logic board is failing. I'm not entirely sure what is up. These are the numbers I am getting now, one from iStat Pro, and the other from System Profiler:
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/setsuna108/Real%20Me/Screenshot2012-03 -05at95132PM.png
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/setsuna108/Real%20Me/Screenshot2012-03 -05at100154PM.png
I had my laptop plugged in all day, but I unplugged it for like, 2 seconds because the LED light on my 85w Magsafe Adaptor was out again... just from bumping it. It was at 82% battery health yesterday, and was fully charged. The battery, as well as the adaptor and laptop are a little over 2 years old. My battery health has been declining since January... it was at 86% health at the end of January, near the beginning of February... then a few weeks into February, it went down to 84%, then 81%... up to 82%, and now down to 79% health. What on earth is going on? Do I need to get a new battery along with a logic board replacement?

Software update to 10.6.8 fully?
Reinstall 10.6 only then Software update fully?
You can do that by backing up data off the machine and disconnecting, then c boot off the 10.6 disk, just reinstall OS X over the more recent copy, then reboot holding shift key down (precaution) then Software update fully to 10.6.8.
then you'll have to check all third party software to make sure it's running, some install kext (kernel extension) files into OS X which get booted out by the overwrite install method, so install those again from fresh sources.
If that doesnt' fix your issue then it's a firmware or hardware issue..
run a hardware test
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
For the "D" you need a internet connection previously (don't move if on wifi) and hold that D down for quite some time.

2011 MacBook Pro shuts down while working with blu ray disks

I am trying to backup my blu ray disks to digital formats in the event that a disk is damaged. I am using an early 2011 MacBook Pro with OSX 10.8.5 with a Samsung SE-506 external blu ray writer. I have been using handbrake to rip DVD's, but downloaded Make MKV to handle blu rays. I successfully ripped one blu ray disk last night. Once before that, and four times after, the computer shut down after failing to read the disk. When it restarts, a gray screen reports that the computer experienced and error and had to shut down. I believe this has something to do with the fact that OSX does not natively support blu ray disks. The disk drive is plugged into one of two USB slots in the computer. The other slot has a USB hub with two external hard drives and some other devices connected to it.
So far, the computer has failed to recognize the disk, and nothing comes up in Make MKV. The last time I tried, the computer recognized the disk, Make MKV read it and showed the titles. When I tried to rip the disk, the process failed. After another attempt, the computer shut down. This has never happened while using the original disk drive, or while using DVD's in the external drive.
I spoke with Samsung support, and they have no record of this being a problem. So, where do I go from here? I have quite a few disks to rip, so I am hoping this issue can be resolved. I have searched around, but cannot find any information on this problem happening to someone else.

Hi lilliputian apple,
If you are having issues with your Mac spontaneously shutting down, especially with externally connected hardware, you may find the following article helpful:
OS X: When your computer spontaneously restarts or displays "Your computer restarted because of a problem."
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4636
Regards,
- Brenden

Help, Macbook Pro shuts down while login

Hi guys,
My 2012 Macbook pro with Yosemite was frozen when copying files and couldn't even shut down. So I rebooted it by long pressing power button.
Then it just shuts down automatically a few seconds after I input password and press enter.
No time machine backups, no enough disk space to reinstall a new copy of system, and there are lots files that I can't afford to lose.
Any help will be appreciated!

Try SMC and PRAM resets:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Then see if a Safe boot will work:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
Then try to boot into the recovery partition and see if you can get into Disk Utility>First Aid to repair the SSD.
http://pondini.org/OSX/RecoveryHD.html
Ciao.

Battery died and macbook pro shut down while I was movie recording using QTP 10.2

Does it mean my film is gone for ever? - I can't find it anywhere in the movie folder or any other place help me please.

No I wasn't recording the screen, I was recording " movie" - from the webcam. And yes, normally when I terminate the recording Mac askes me what should it be called and where to save it, and of course this didn't happen. - is there a chance the unterminated recording is hidden somewhere,? and can i somehow retrieve it?
The answer is essentially the same. The temporary scratch file will be located in the temporary "scratch" area for your user account on the start-up drive. The file still won't open in any QT player. Even if you locate it, you would still have to calculate the exact duration of the file in terms of frames/time for the file's timing references and enter the correct data for the file container and each track header if you can locate an app to read/edit the data on the drive to "create" acceptable termination markers so the file will be recognizeable by QT based apps. Since the frame/data rate for for such recordings tend to be inconsistent (i.e., dependent on system CPU power and recording mode in use) this process would, I believe, be more than even most advanced users are willing to attempt. (I.e., I have never succeeded in such a calculation attempt but have been able to recover files for which the all of the required data was known—e.g., the restoration of non-destructively trimmed files which is a much different operation. All I am saying is that, in theory, it might be possible for a thoroughly knowledgeable user to recover the data saved up to a point just prior to the loss of power but I am not such a person. This also assumes the hard drive itself was not compromised/corrupted when power was lost.

My girlfriends Macbook Pro shuts down at the Apple Logo....

My girlfriends Macbook Pro shuts down at the Apple Logo....
1)I start the computer
2)It loads to the apple logo
3)A progress bar shows and loads about 5% then it dissappears and a few seconds later the macbook pro shuts down.
Any solutions?
If not, is there any way for me to reinstall the os without losing any files such as(any of her pictures, music, etc)?

Hi S,
See if you can run Repair Disk: Boot frominstall disc (insert disc > restart > immediately hold down c key andkeep holding it until you see “Preparing Installation”) > at first screenselect the language and click Continue > click on the Utilities Menu in themenu bar > open Disk Utility > select your HD in the panel on the leftside> click Repair Disk at bottom of main window. Run this at least twice,and keep running it until it says “appears ok” twice in a row. If that doesn’thappen, you may need a stronger utility such as DiskWarrior or if the directoryis damaged beyond repair, you may need to reinstall the OS, or you may have a damagedHD (repair utilities can only repair the directory structure, not the HDitself). When this is finished, quit Disk Utility, quit the installer, andrestart. Once booted normally, go to Applications > Utilities > DiskUtility and run Repair Permissions.

MacBook randomly shuts down while watching streaming video

I've been having a problem lately with my MacBook randomly shutting down. I initially thought it was due to overheating which was logical considering I was using my MacBook in bed and the computer was very hot when it would shut off, but I've recently started using a TV-Table top for it to sit on when I'm using it in bed. My MacBook continues to shut down and the computer isn't nearly as hot as it was prior to using the TV-Table top, it is just warm. It's definitely not a battery issue because this happens when I'm using the power source as well. *I think I've noticed that this only happens when I'm in Firefox watching online streaming video on sites such as YouTube.* I never use Safari so I'm not sure if the problem would occur in Safari or not. I tried installing the MacBook SMC Firmware Update v1.1 but it said my computer didn't need it.

I have the same problem, every once in a not-so-blue moon my macbook pro shuts down while streaming video. It only happens when streaming video. Just watched some of the new south park episode, and it shut down on me! It really ticks me off!!!!!

My macbook pro shuts down OSX and all my programs when the lid is closed

Hi,
I am having a problem. My macbook pro shuts down OSX and all my programs when the lid is closed. I close the lid, and then I hear the shutdown music and then when I open it again it automatically restarts OSX and all my windows and programs are closed, any info gone.
This doesn't happen all the time. Just once a day or maybe twice a day. It seems like it happens basically when I have my computer just the way I want it, to keep an eye on things for the day.
I just recently switched to a mac and while somewhat savvy, I am not a programmer or techie, but it seems to me that when I shut the lid, it should do the same thing every time.
I have a intel core 2 duo 17 inch macbook pro with 2.33 processr and 2 gig ram, if that helps.
I am in alaska and there is no genius bar here and I am hoping to figure this out before I begin bugging our local independant mac store about this.
Thanks in advance,
Lylah
17 inch Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9) intel core 2 duo 2.33g. 2 gig ram

Ahhh, enlightenment!
That would make sense. What I usually do, after closing the lid, is to wait for the apple to turn off and then set it down on it's side leaning it against the side table. I will try to wait for it to indicate that it is fully asleep before I move it next time. Personally, I prefer my computer to NOT fall asleep at all, but I am told it is not an option. Apparently this function is hardware related accoring to my local mac shop. They tracked it down for me because I hated this feature when I first bought my computer and was trying some way around it.
The shutdown music I was refering to was that music the mac makes when shutting down, which doesnt usually occur when it goes to sleep, unless it is malfunctioning like this.
What does resetting the pmu do? (what is a pmu as well?)
Thank you very much.
Lylah

Hello. I recently pieced together a late 2008 MacBook Pro 15". Everything works fine except the battery constantly goes between "not charging" and "calculating" or, rarely "charging". It does charge after a long while and will report that it is charged.

Hello. I recently pieced together a late 2008 MacBook Pro 15". Everything works fine except the battery constantly goes between "not charging" and "calculating" or, rarely "charging". It does charge after a long while and will report that it is charged.
I have reset the NVRAM and the SMC a couple of time but that didn't work so I ran an Apple Hardware Test and while testing the logic board it gives the following error:
4SNS/1/40000000 LB1T
I've done some research and found this is a temperature sensor related to the battery, but cannot find where the sensor is located in the computer. Would you know how I can find the sensor to test it? Could my battery problem be related to something else? Would a fresh install of Lion help?
Thank you!
Mike
Two pieces of information that may or may not b helpful, the hard drive is from my early 2008 MBP and the only test disc I have access to is from an iMac.

Why do you have LION installed on that older machine?
So you say you built a macbook from a bucket of parts eh? Kudos
heres a pic of the battery temp sensor

Late 2008 MacBook Pro - Bootcamp (Vista-32bit) issues

Hey all -
I have a couple issues with my late 2008 MacBook Pro when I use bootcamp to switch to its Vista (32 bit) side. I've never been able to solve these issues myself, so I was hoping I could get some help here.
When on the vista side, when I close the lid the computer display will shut off but the actualy computer will continue to run, and after some time I will no be able to wake it from its sleep.
When I try to turn the brightness down on my screen, it will turn down but then turn back to full brightness a few seconds later.
Scrollng with 2 fingers on the track pad is erratic (I read there was going to be a fix for this?)
The laptop gets so hot to the touch that it is almost painful (I imagine this can't be good for the computer)
It has also become sluggish to the point where even simple games and those on steam won't work without incredible lag. Are there anyways to stop some processes to speed up the vista side?
Like I said, this is all while in bootcamp, not experiencing any of the issues on the OSX side.
Thanks for any help

Would love some help if anyone knows

MacBook Pro shuts down when unplugged

I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro work computer. Here's the sequence of events:
I fully charge the battery
I unplug the Mac from the power cable
The Mac immediately shuts down
Before unplugging the Mac, I press the battery power indicator button and all lights are green. When I unplug the Mac I press the indicator button again and only one light is green.
I've tried resetting the PRAM, SMC and even bought a new battery but the problem persists. Here is the System Information.
How can I get my MacBook Pro to stay powered on when not plugged in?

Hi Ryan,
ryansebiz wrote:
I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro work computer. Here's the sequence of events:
I fully charge the battery
I unplug the Mac from the power cable
The Mac immediately shuts down
Before unplugging the Mac, I press the battery power indicator button and all lights are green. When I unplug the Mac I press the indicator button again and only one light is green.
I've tried resetting the PRAM, SMC and even bought a new battery but the problem persists. Here is the System Information.
How can I get my MacBook Pro to stay powered on when not plugged in?
System Profiler shows you have 195 cycles on this batt and says "Service Battery" so I'm not sure if that's the old batt or you bought a used one, but either way, it looks like that batt is nearly dead. If you have a new/different batt, install it, give it a full charge, and post System Profiler info for that one.
Also, have you tried different power adapter and/or tried your power adapter on a different MBP?

My macbook pro shuts down automatically

Hi,
My macbook pro battery condition has been showing that it needs to be replaced soon. Ever since I knew my battery was weak, I started using my macbook by always connection it to the power adapter that way the power source would be from adapter. Since last two days, while in use macbook pro shuts down on me automatically. It never said shutting down or anything like that. The screen just went blank instantly and when i checked the battery indicator lights, all of the battery is drained. When I presses the power button it started and then instantly shut down again. After few mins of repeating, I am finally able to see that my computer is getting turned on. But this issue repeats almost on a daily basis since the last three four days. Even if my battery went bad, I should be able to use my computer by connecting it to the power adapter, right ? or do I have to mandatorily replace battery for my computer to work ? please help.

Resetting SMC
Read the support paper at the link
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Renewing a Late 2008 MacBook Pro: hard drive and battery substitution

Hi all,
I am an happy user of a late 2008 MacBook pro.
However, with the passing of time, it became slow and the battery also deteriorate (it still quite OK, but it is not like at the beginning).
But let's start from the beginning: the hard drive
By googling for a while, I noticed that several people experienced very slow performance of their late 2008 MacBook Pro. That is also my case. Apparently, this is due to the hard disk which is dying, and then I considering to change it. However, I haven't found answers to these questions:
- Is it possible to mirror all the containt of the current disk to the new one?
- I only have the original installation disks of the first Leopard. I made all the updates through the network. Moreover, since it passed lot of time, I am afraid that some sector of the installation disks may be damaged. This means that I may fail in the installation of Mac Os X on the new hard drive. If I have to reinstall everything from scratch with the new hard drive and without installation disks, how should I do?
- If I go a Mac Reseller shop, will do they perform this operation? And how much does it costs to make it? Or I may also go to some generic computer reparation guy?
- Is it convenient to save all the data (movies, documents, pictures, emails, etc) somewhere (e.g. external HD) and then perform a completely new installation?
Next, let's consider the battery.
Here is a screenshot taken with iStat Pro:
Do you think it is worth changing it? From System Profile I have those other info:
Full charge capacity (mAh):          3386
       Current (mA):          846
       Voltage (mV):          12029
Condition:          Replace soon
What do you suggest to do then? How much does it cost a new battery? Actually, I think that also the processor performance deteriorate (it often becomes very hot, especially when watching Flash or Silverlight stuff), but, unfortunately I cannot change it.

Hi!
Thanks for all the answer. Please let me to resume this old and interesting discussion.
After having evaluated several solutions (including NAS, different ways of backup, etc) I bought an external firewire HDD, since I believe it nicely fits my necessities. Next, after these holidays, I will finally replace my old HDD with a SSD one. I think 120 GB are ok. I just need the apps and small-sized documents (rather LaTeX, Matlab, word, pages or excel documents, etc. - no movies or mp3 (I have Spotify, for that) ). Large files (e.g. movies, pictures, etc) may end up in external firewire HDD.
Now, let's consider the OS. I currently have 10.6.8 and I am very satisfied of that. I find it very stable, and all the apps I need are still well supported. On the other hand, given that there are like 5 years that I have the same installation, I may have a lot of obsolete files and setting that I can safely remove. This means that once I will have performed a backup of my documents, my email, my pictures etc. I can safely throw away all the rest. Hence, I may perform a brand-new installation of the OS. Although I am happy with 10.6.8, I was wondering if it is worth to upgrade it (I have a 2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo - 4 GB 1067 Mhz DDR3 RAM) to Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavricks. In that case, which would be the real benefits? And what about the cons?
Finally consider that I only have the Leopard installation disks from 2008 (not even Snow Leopard) and I will bring my laptop to a techician to change the HDD (I know, it is simple but I don't have all the screws etc. and I will not buy them only for this purpose). Once he will have replaced the HDD, will he re-install the OS also? Or I have to reinstall the OS through my original DVD (5 years old, I don't even know if they still work) and upgrade to Snow Leopard again by myself? I would exclude the carbon copy solution since I may want to throw away a lot of garbage and perform a brand new instalation of the OS. How to proceed? Thanks again!

How many hours does a brand new battery last after fully charged. I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro.

How many hours does a brand new battery last after fully charged. I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro.

clintonfrombirmingham is right, there is no way to exactly tell. But from personal experience, a new battery on a 2008 will last for about 2 1/2 hours with a higher screen brightness and doing something taxing to the battery (like gaming or running lots of 3D programs). But if you're just listening to music with the brightness all the way down, and no programs running, you could get up to 12 hours. So for average use, it should last you a whole business day (assuming you don't use it more than 30% 0f the time). Hope this kind of gives you more of an idea of what to expect:)

Macbook Pro shutting down. Hardware error code 4MEM/62/40000000:0x7f537f90

Macbook Pro shutting down. Not the same action making it shutdown. Anywhere from being online to attaching a photo to an email to working in Word or Photoshop. Even after it's closed and not being used. I come back to it being shut off and saying it had to restart because of a problem. I ran the Hardware check and got the Hardware error code 4MEM/62/40000000:0x7f537f90.
I must say I am quite disappointed. I have used Mac for work but had a PC since day one, and I JUST got this Macbook Pro in Dec. I was delighted that Mac usually didn't have as many problems with viruses etc as PC. And now last couple days, constantly shutting itself down. The closest store to me is a few hrs away. I am in South Dakota, store is in Minnesota Any help would be appreciated.

Can you post a screen shot of About This Mac -> (More Info) -> System Report -> Memory and click on each DIMM and post the bottom right pane. You can also do the same without a screen shot using just text version using the following highlighted command in OSX Terminal. The output is also listed.
system_profiler SPMemoryDataType
Memory:
    Memory Slots:
      ECC: Disabled
      Upgradeable Memory: No
        BANK 0/DIMM0:
          Size: 8 GB
          Type: DDR3
          Speed: 1600 MHz
          Status: OK
          Manufacturer: 0x02FE
          Part Number: -
          Serial Number: -
        BANK 1/DIMM0:
          Size: 8 GB
          Type: DDR3
          Speed: 1600 MHz
          Status: OK
          Manufacturer: 0x02FE
          Part Number: -
          Serial Number: -

Late 2008 MacBook Pro shuts down while closing lid

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for